1.      Message from the President

Every year around this time our shelter gets indundated with unwanted cats and dogs and this year is no exception. In fact we have been overwhelmed with animals dropped off between our doors; found wandering around with no homes; picked up by the Pound and then surrendered to SAD rather than euthanise them or just plain abandoned, in the bush along the highway or wherever some uncaring person feels they can leave them. This puts a tremendous burden on SAD to find homes for all these unwanted animals who would otherwise be put down. One answer is our Foster Home programme - but we need more foster homes.  Can you help us by providing a temporary home for some of these animals. The shelter can only house so many before we have to close our doors and we are just about there. But with more foster homes we can accommodate more animals and thus prevent them from being destroyed for no fault of their own. There is no cost to you - SAD pays for everything - food, vet expenses, etc. - you just provide the tlc that these animals so desperately need and only on a temporary basis. As soon as a good home is found for them they will be placed.  Any animal that is fostered with you will be healthy and will have had all its shots etc.  A foster home just allows us to take in more animals at the shelter but without you we cannot keep finding the room and then we have to start turning animals away and we all know the end result there - they will be put down.
So please if you have room in your home for an unwanted or abandoned animal that needs your tlc contact the Shelter and sign on.  There are so many animals out there that need your help so please help us to help those animals “in distress”. They really need you.

2.      Administration re-organization into committees

As you know every good organization is only as good as its Committees which are its main operating tool. In an effort to streamline SAD as an organization, your Board of Directors has established the following Committees together with a new format. Each committee has a chair person, 2 or 3 members who work actively and directly with the Chair, and a varying number of members, depending on the Committee, who are available  to help as needed. We’ve struck the following committees and while many of them are staffed, there are others where we still need your participation. These Committees are not necessarily run by a Director and it is our hope that we can involve our membership more. So please check out the different Committees and if you find one that interests you let us know. Remember by sitting and working with one of these Committees you, as a member, will be able to become directly involved in the running of SAD.
            - Fundraising                                     - Foster homes
            - Membership                                   - Website/email distribution
            - Publishing                                       - Special projects
            - Bingo/Nevada                                 - Advertising
            - New volunteers 
            - Shelter maintenance and operation

(We are looking for a chair person as well as 2 Committee members)

3.      Thank you volunteers

Thank-you to everyone who responded to our appeal in our last Newsletter for more volunteers. It is very rewarding to know that people are willing to help us with this very important work of running our Shelter.
Also thank-you to all our “old” volunteers - we couldn’t do it without you.
Of course, having said that we are still in need of more volunteers especially people who would like to help out with the occasional bingo session and who will help us with driving animals to their various appointments. Please contact Brandi at the Shelter if you have some spare time that you would like to spend with us.

4.      Fundraising

Recent events and results

• We’ve had four events since our last newsletter, some hosted by us and some very kindly sponsored and run by our supporters - all of these were a great success and thanks to everyone who helped organise and participated.

            - Scrabble-a-thon, put on by Katimavik Guys and Gals              $345.50
            - BBQ, put on by Pet Value                                                           $650.00
            - Espanola Canadian Tire Fun Day                                               $645.81
            - S.A.D. Yard Sale                                                                          $400.00
            - S.A.D. Yard Sale at Frame Cres.                                                $92.45
            - Fall bulb sale                                                                                $250.00

            TOTAL                                                                                            $2,383.76

5.      Upcoming events

The schedule and details of our events are always maintained on the Events page of our website, http://www.sadelliotlake.com/News_EventsA.html on cable Channel 10 and The Community Events column in The Standard.

Christmas raffle

This is being called “A Night on the Town” as it has all of the elements. It consists of:

• Two tickets to see Dawn Langstroth’s Elliot Lake Entertainment Series performance on Dec.5 in the Lester B Pearson Centre at 7:30 PM.
• A $100 gift certificate from Dunlop Lake Lodge.
• Two $25 gift certificates from The Hair Gallery.
• A $65 gift certificate from Salient Physics Day Spa.
• A gourmet gift basket from Janes Tea garden, valued at $35.

Tickets are $5.00 each or three for $10.00 and the draw will be held on Nov. 28th at 3:30 PM in The Sunshine Store.

5.2     Annual General Meeting

• This is being held on Saturday, November 14 at the Moose hall between 2 – 4 PM. Historically AGM’s do not get a good turn out - most people find them boring but it is your chance to have your say on how we are doing and what you would like to see us do better. So we are hoping that as many of you as possible will attend and bring along your comments, suggestions, criticisms whatever but please also remember that we are all volunteers doing the best we can. We welcome your input and will listen to everything you have to say but please let’s keep it cordial. In the past things have sometimes got a bit negative - let’s try to keep our comments focussed on the positive rather than on the negative i.e. what can we do to help.  After all we are all here to help the animals and that should be our only focus - how can we get better and more able to meet the needs of our “residents”.

• As you know at the AGM your Board will change - some Board members will opt to stay on for another term;  some will leave - we do have a couple of spots that need to be filled.  Anyone who is interested in sitting on the Board - please submit your resumes to SAD at the above address.  You will then be able to play a role in saying how your Shelter should be run and we do need committed people to help us.  A Nominating Committee will be formed shortly and all your resumes will be considered and interviews will be held. Hopefully once we have a few more people willing to participate on our Board we can continue our work and again hopefully continue to improve our service to the community and to the animals under our care.  We hope you will join us.

6.      Administrivia

6.1     Membership

Watch out for our Christmas Membership Drive which will include a draw for a wonderful Christmas Creation kindly donated to us by Gail Kennedy.  One lucky new member will be able to go home with this beautiful piece for their Christmas table. Keep checking the web site as we will shortly be posting a photo on there.
We recently decided to include all of those who have adopted one of our animals this year as members so we are currently up to 219. We ask that if you know anyone whose membership has lapsed or who is not yet a member, please ask them to consider taking out a membership as they will become an active participant in helping to keep our Shelter open and thereby saving many abused, unwanted and abandoned cats and dogs who would otherwise be euthanized. As the only "No Kill" Shelter in the area, our goal is to expand our reach and improve our service substantially and we can only do this with your help - taking out a membership is one way to provide that help.

6.2     Newsletter distribution

Our July edition was our biggest distribution yet, due to our recently expanded list, and unfortunately we only had email addresses for 42% of our membership. Some of the board members hand delivered paper editions to addresses around their neighbourhood again but our postage costs increased dramtically. If you have email and receive a paper edition, please let us know so that we can include it and reduce our postage costs.

6.3     Website

• Our webmaster, Catherine Burnett, would really like to get some stories and pictures about past adoptees to go on our “Happy Endings” page so if anyone who has adopted a dog or cat from SAD has any funny, happy or heartwarming stories about their new companions, please take a few minutes to send them to her atpulrossie@sympatico.ca.
• We have started working on a new design and layout of our website. This will take quite a few months to complete but we are very excited about it and will keep you posted as to its progress.

Pet memorial on our website

As well as investigating an actual memorial site here in town, we would like to remind you that we already have a page on our website where you can commemorate your pet’s passing. The cost of the memorial is a one time fee of $35.00, which will be used to keep the shelter operating, and you can contact the shelter to make the arrangements about the picture and text you want included.

7.      Exciting bingo promotion

As a recipient of charity funding we are happy to share more details of this upcoming “Rev Up The Fun” event. Bingo Plus, home of the Elliot Lake Bingo Association, will be having a draw for a brand new 2010 Dodge Charger which will be on display at Algoma Chrysler in Elliot Lake.
Starting Sunday, November 8, all bingo attendees will be given a ballot to enter the draw. The first draw will be made on Saturday, November 14, and subsequently ballots will be issued and draws will be held on November 21 and 28 as well as December 5 and 12. Each winner will be given a certificate that will allow them to go on to the final draw. On Saturday, December 19, five (5) ‘second chance’ ballots will be selected from the drum so that ten (10) keys will have been awarded and each will use their key to see if it opens the mailbox containing the car’s ignition key, others will receive a consolation gift certificate.

8.      Fostering and vacations